The Only Way Out
by kenansense
Summary: This is it. Harry has destroyed all but one Horcrux, the one in Voldemort's direct possession. In Riddle's final stronghold, love, courage, power, and loss combine to create several unexpected turns of events, ending in the death of someone we love...
1. The Shrine of Death

**A/N** – Before you read this, here are a few things you might want to know. Then again, this is long already, so if you don't have much time, skip this part...

This story was originally posted around the time HBP was released, maybe one or two days afterward. I had posted some examples of it before, but nothing that had incorporated HBP into the plot. This was originally a challenge to myself to use the dialogue from the ending of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (an excellent video game for the Super Nintendo) to create an ending to Harry Potter. It worked, and it actually received 16 reviews, shocking your author, who thought that three would have been excellent for a oneshot. But a few months later I read this and thought that it was better taken down, and then I deleted it and lost all the work that I had done. When I realized that I really loved this story and wanted to post it again, I had to rewrite it from scratch, taking up a great deal of time and still not living up to the original.

This is now serving as the prologue to my His Dark Materials/Harry Potter crossover, although with a different ending. But I liked the original ending, and so I decided to repost this oneshot one last time, for those who didn't get to read Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return, and because I like reviews and a few more are never bad. XD

**Update 6/3/2007**: Edited...this is officially version 1.1. (Hooray!)

- Split into chapters for easier and better reading  
- Corrected a few plot holes  
- Added to parts of the narration I found lacking

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**- Harry Potter is the property of J. K. "Sugar Mama" Rowling, all rights reserved.

**The Only Way Out**

It was dark.

That was the first thing that Harry Potter noticed about the structure that he was currently in. The darkness overwhelmed him, folding over and over within him so that it overcame every facet of him and he _became_ the darkness, and the very air was tainted with something inexplicably evil.

In Harry's mind, he could still see one of his closest friends, Remus Lupin, leaping in front of him and taking a Cruciatus Curse meant for him, giving Harry time to stun its caster, none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. Unfortunately, Fenrir Greyback had been lurking nearby, and Lupin's act of sacrifice gave Greyback the opening he needed to cast a Killing Curse at Harry's surrogate father, ending Lupin's life instantly.

Harry shook the thoughts out of his head. Now was not the time to mourn for the lost. There would be plenty of time after the battle. "Is everyone okay?" he asked the friends surrounding him, gasping for breath after the effort he had put into their final run into the shrine where Harry now stood.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the voice of his best friend, Ronald Weasley, from his left side, although Harry could see nothing save the horrible darkness that engulfed everything around him.

"Me, too," came the voice of Hermione Granger, his other best friend, and Harry could tell that she was shaking with fear. "I'm alright too."

"We finally got here, huh?" asked Ron rhetorically.

"Is this the Shrine of Voldemort?" asked Harry, straining to see anything around him—the darkness did not yield.

"It's so dark..." whispered Hermione, her voice trailing off as she, too, tried to see through the darkness, to no avail.

"I feel the energy," said Harry slowly, the very _wrongness_ of the place that he now stood in unable to deny.

There was a pause, after which Ron added, "Evil energy. Watch out. It's pretty strong!"

"Everyone, _Lumos _on three," said Harry quietly, taking control. "One, two..."

"_Lumos_," whispered three voices at once, and all of a sudden the darkness immediately surrounding the three friends was dispelled by the light charm.

"So this is the Shrine of Voldemort," said Harry, looking at what little of the shrine that he could see. To his left and right were stone walls—the place seemed to have been built of the same materials of Hogwarts, although with none of the good intentions. Ahead of him, at a point which Harry had to strain his eyes to see, the walls around them spread further out—they must have currently been in an entryway, being that they had only just made their way into the building.

Harry felt Hermione shiver next to him. "It's so cold," she said, her voice shaking as though to intensify her point. "It's so cold it chills my heart."

A sudden voice came from above, echoing through the shrine and striking fear into the hearts of each of the threesome. "You have made it to my ssshrine at last..."

Harry looked around warily. "Voldemort? Voldemort? Is that you? Show yourself!" he shouted, wand drawn and ready, voice disciplined and prepared for a battle.

"Come!" shouted Voldemort, as though they were playing a game. "Come before me. I am right above you."

Harry stood still for several moments before finally moving forward, his lit wand lighting the way ahead of him. After a brief instant, he was joined by Ron and Hermione, one at each side, flanking him faithfully. Together they made their way through the mysterious shrine very slowly, on constant lookout for Voldemort or any of his Death Eaters. The hallway that they walked through seemed endless, but finally it narrowed greatly and led to a set of stairs, twisting ominous above them and leading to the next floor. "I'll go first," said Harry determinedly. "Keep a lookout for any Death Eaters—shout if you see anything." And with that, Harry held his wand in front of him and cautiously walked up the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as Harry had ascended the first few steps, Ron followed him, imitating his friend as best as possible. The staircase wound its way in a circle twice before finally leveling out and depositing the three friends on another floor of the shrine.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to walk forward, their footsteps echoing off the cold stone floor. Everywhere around him was the darkness, darkness so great that it seemed almost as if he was surrounded by dementors...

Harry stopped abruptly, Ron almost walking into him before taking Harry's hint and looking around, frightened. "What is it, Harry?" asked Hermione, who had come to a stop behind Ron. "Did you see something?"

"I thought I heard a noise," replied Harry, his hands shaking. Could it be a Death Eater? Harry was sure that he had heard something—and there it was again! This time Ron and Hermione heard too, and both drew their wands, pointing them in the general direction from which the noise came.

"That—that sounded like a squeak," said Ron uncertainly. "Could it be—"

"Pettigrew," said Harry flatly, and was about to command the Animagus to show himself when suddenly something ran into Harry's feet, and he looked down to see not the fully clad Death Eater he expected, but instead a fairly common brown mouse. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"What—_what the bloody hell was that, Harry?_" asked his best friend, apparently seeing the mouse too, although not as well as Harry had.

"Just a mouse, mate," said Harry, and for a moment Ron's countenance, illuminated in the glow of the wand lights, broke into a smile.

"Not—not Pettigrew, then?" asked Ron, and Harry nodded reassuringly.

"No. Nothing dangerous," said Harry to his friend, trying desperately to keep his voice calm. "No Death Eaters."

The three friends quieted eventually, and Harry resumed his trek forward and deeper into the shrine, his friends following behind him. The three separate _Lumos_ spells provided barely enough light to see by, even combined, and so it was with a great deal of paranoia that the Golden Trio continued on their way to defeat Voldemot and rid the world of darkness.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had barely walked forward ten feet before there was a sudden bang and the three were strung up by their ankles. Harry tried fruitlessly to free himself from the _Levicorpus_ hex, but didn't get the countercurse off in time, as there was a loud, "_Expelliarmus!_" and Harry's wand flew out of his hand and into the hand of a masked Death Eater, who pocketed it and did the same to Ron and Hermione.

Finally the Death Eater waved his or her wand again, and Harry felt himself fly into the wall behind him, staying frozen to it in a manner that, ironically, Harry found very similar to the way Dumbledore had hidden him that night on the Astronomy Tower.

And then the Death Eater removed his mask, and Harry felt himself almost angry enough to perform the Killing Curse. It was Peter Pettigrew.


	2. Bonds

"H—Hello, Harry," said the rat quietly, voice shaking, and Harry felt the rage within him rise to a boiling point. Pettigrew raised his wand and wandlessly cast a Silencing Charm, so Harry's string of extreme vulgarities went unheard by the Death Eater, although he caught the gist of it judging by his incensed look.

"My Master will be very pleased," said Pettigrew, a sadistic tone creeping into his pathetic voice. "To have brought him not only the Boy-Who-Lived, but also his two best friends—"

He was interrupted as Harry suddenly found himself able to speak and let loose on the bald man. "You _bastard_, you fucking _bastard_, how could you, how could you serve Voldemort, the little half-blooded wanker? My parents trusted you, and you betrayed them, and now you betrayed me...I saved your goddamn life, and this is how you repay me? I swear I'll—"

But what Harry would do next went unsaid, because a furious look swept over Pettigrew's face and he waved his wand again, replacing the silencing charm on the Boy-Who-Lived. Pettigrew began to pace, resuming his speech as though he had not been interrupted.

"As I was saying, I am certain my master will be incredibly pleased that I have brought you three to him, Harry, Ron, Hermione. The prophecy will be ridiculously easy to fulfill with you tied up and lying on the ground."

Although Harry could only move his body from the neck up, Pettigrew must have caught Harry's surprised expression, however, because he shivered slightly before continuing, "Oh yes, we know the prophecy. Are you surprised, Harry? We extracted it from the memories of Professor Trelawney after kidnapping her last winter. I bet you didn't even notice she was gone, did you?" asked Pettigrew, sounding, in a very sick way, somehow proud of himself. "She was ridiculously easy to kidnap—all I had to do was sneak in in my rat form and replace her with a convincing double on Polyjuice, and with Dumbledore gone, no one thought to check!"

Rage as he had never known before was now coursing through Harry's body. An extreme heat centered at Harry's scar began to sear through him, spreading out from its initial point of occurrence and covering Harry's entire body. When the heat faded, Harry found himself drop to the floor, the power of movement regained.

He didn't speak, didn't think, just did the first thing that came to his mind. Seizing the best of the opportunity before him, Harry ran at Pettigrew and prepared to hurl himself at him. Suddenly, however, Harry felt his jump cease, and the next thing he knew he was being thrown against the wall again, his head aching from the sheer pain of hitting the hard stone.

Pettigrew's face was screwed up in concentration now, and Harry felt his hate for the man that stood before him increase a hundredfold. Not only had he betrayed his parents, but Harry had saved his _life_, caused his to owe Harry a wizards' debt, and still the bastard continued to hurt him and his friends.

Pettigrew began to mumble indiscernibly to himself, pacing the floor. Finally he stopped, pointing his wand at Ron, then at Hermione in turn.

"I cannot kill Harry, of course, this is true," said Pettigrew, muttering again, although this time he was close enough that Harry, Ron, and Hermione could hear him. "But my master said nothing about eliminating the other two...perhaps my reward would increase if I did..."

Harry struggled as hard as he could against his bonds, wanting to do something, _anything_, to stop the monster before him, but it was all in vain. Harry hung from the wall just as he had done before, nothing changing, still helpless and forced to watch the execution of his two best friends in the entire world by the person who was responsible for the deaths of his parents as well.

Pettigrew's wand continued to dance back and forth between Ron and Hermione, as though Pettigrew was unable to decide whom to kill first. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few moments, Pettigrew finally turned to Hermione and trained his wand on her, his entire body shaking now.

"I'm s-sorry, H-Hermione—but Ron looked after me for years as a—a rat, and y-your cat tried to kill me..."

Harry wished at that very moment that he could take Hermione's place, that Pettigrew would kill him instead, torture him, anything, fulfill the prophecy, as long as his friends would be okay. He wondered if he wished hard enough then he could perform accidental magic, but nothing sprang forth, no magical solution occurred sparing Hermione's life...Pettigrew had his wand pointed directly at Hermione's heart...he was saying the fatal curse, shaking like a leaf but somehow still managing the magic...the words on his lips were almost complete...Harry watched helplessly, his eyes transfixed on the form of his best friend since the troll incident in first year...

And then out of nowhere came a brilliant jet of red light. Pettigrew crumpled to the floor.

His savior made his or her way towards him, wand drawn, a pinpoint of light emitting from the end. As they approached, Harry briefly recognized her identity, but could hardly bring himself to say it...

"Ginny?" he asked confusedly, and the figure nodded, her red hair gleaming in the wandlight. With a flick of her wand, the invisible bonds binding Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the wall fell away, and Harry's two best friends converged on Pettigrew, removing their wands from his slimy grasp. But Harry remained still, simply staring into the face of the girl...no, woman...that he had resigned himself possibly never to see again.

"Gin—I—why did you come in?" asked Harry, averting his gaze, feeling like his heart was breaking at what he was about to ask her to do. "I told you to stay outside! You could be killed—I can't let you—"

"Harry, just stop right there, or I won't be able to respect you as long as I live!" shouted Ginny, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Harry sadly turned to face her again. "Ginny..."

"Just don't talk to me like that," said Ginny, her face pained. "It hurts."

Harry stared at her speechlessly, marveling at how her chocolate-brown eyes looked in the dim light. Without warning, Ginny shot forward and embraced him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder.

"Do you think I can let you go without me?" she asked, her voice soft. "No matter what happens to me, I'm going with you."

Harry sighed. "Gin..."

But Ginny wasn't finished. "Let's go together," she said resolutely. "And come back together. Let's go back to my mum and dad, and Fred and George, and the rest of my family, and the whole world, together."

"Yeah," said Harry, leaning into the hug now with everything he had.

From a short distance away, Harry's two best friends looked at the couple, smiling. "Hermione?" asked Ron, looking at her, his gaze boring into her.

"What is it?" she asked, slightly aware of what was to come.

"Hermione—you know I feel the same way about you, don't you? I mean—if anything happened to you, I don't know what I would do. I've never thought of it because it's always just been me, you, and Harry, you know? But sometimes I wish that you would stay behind..."

"And you know perfectly well that that's never going to happen, so why even bother asking?" asked Hermione forcefully, before her gaze suddenly softened. "Look, Ron, I know what I'm getting into. I love you, and I'd gladly go into this if it meant that everything would be alright."

Ron nodded, overcome by his emotions. "Let's have dinner tomorrow," he said suddenly, causing Hermione to turn and look at him confusedly.

"What?" she asked, her voice showing her obvious confusion.

"Let's have dinner tomorrow," repeated Ron. "We'll all go to the Burrow. We can invite Neville, and Luna, and Katie, and Angelina, and Alicia, and of course Harry—"

"Sounds like a lot of fun," said Hermione, giving him a kiss on the lips. "Let's have a party with all our friends."

"Yeah, with everyone..."

They turned to Harry and Ginny, who were still locked in an embrace in the center of the room. Ron walked up to the couple. "Hey, Romeo and Ginevra!" he said cheekily. "Get your asses out of lovey-dovey world and into the present! There'll plenty of time to do that once we kill the bastard!"

Harry and Ginny pulled apart, slightly embarrassed, and Harry nodded at Ron. The four friends continued forward through the immense shrine, the pattering of their feet on the stone ground the only noise. Harry paused once when he heard a hissing noise, and could barely make out the words "_Kill...I smell fresh meat..._" in Parseltongue. Luckily, there seemed to be no way for whatever creature that was beyond the walls to reach Harry or his friends, and so they continued on for what seemed like an eternity before reaching another set of stairs. They climbed those stairs as well, Ginny insisting on going first and Harry much closer behind her than was needed. They then walked for a while across more stone floors until the walls tapered off and they found themselves at the edge of a crystal bridge.

Suddenly there was an unexplainable gust of wind, and Voldemort's sinister voice cut through the silence. "You may cross..." he whispered, his snakelike voice accentuating the _s_ as though speaking Parseltongue. Harry took Ginny's hand.

"Harry. It could be a trap," she said to him, hand clutched deeply within his.

"He said cross," said Harry, more bravely than he felt. "Let's go."

"But..."

"Voldemort is testing us. He senses our feelings. Don't show any fear!"

Ron piped up from next to him. "You're right. That's what he's doing." With an obvious mix of bravery and fear, Ron made his way across the bridge, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione all holding their breaths and watching him carefully. Nothing happened, and he arrived safely on the other side, at which point he began beckoning them on earnestly. They all released the breaths that they had not been aware that they were holding, and Hermione stepped forward.

"My knowledge is strong," she said, using every ounce of bravery she could muster. "The hopes of my parents and all the Muggles in the world energize me." She joined Ron on the other side, and he hugged her before releasing her and turning to Harry and Ginny expectantly.

"Come on, Gin!" said Harry. "We're the world's last and only chance!"

"I know," she whispered, her voice so soft that it was partially lost in the darkness.

"There's still hope as long as I can feel my mother's love in this scar," said Harry, brushing aside the fringe of his hair and revealing the scar to Ginny.

She stared at it for a moment. "Your scar. It's—it's _shining_, Harry."

"We'll destroy Voldemort and restore peace," said Harry, a shiver running down his spine. "Promise me you'll go back with me."

"Yes, I promise. I'll go back with you."

Harry and Ginny, hands still entwined, stepped forward and made their way across the bridge, joining Ron and Hermione on the other side. Beyond them stretched more of the shrine, although there were strange designs and drawings on the walls and floor, mostly of snakes and the Hogwarts founders. Harry could make out a Slytherin serpent and Hufflepuff badger on the floor beneath them.

Suddenly, the unwelcome voice of Voldemort returned. "You...are powerful, Potter. What is it that gives you the strength to battle on?"

Harry gestured to Ginny and to where his hand still clutched hers tightly. "I have someone to protect..."

Voldemort's laughter rang throughout the shrine. "The woman beside you? You would risk your own life for one woman?"

"To me, she means more than life itself," Harry responded, and Ginny's hand clutched his even tighter.

He looked at her for a moment, and her face was obviously moved. "Harry..." she whispered, her chocolate-brown eyes staring into his.

"Is this _love_?" asked Voldemort disdainfully. "'The power I know not?' Ridiculous! Even such power must fall before Lord Voldemort!"

And then he was gone, leaving only the four friends alone in the dark.

Slightly shaken, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny moved forward, the carvings on the floor and walls moving past them. The drawings now lined every inch of the shrine, and depicted mostly Salazar Slytherin and snakes of all kinds, although there were still carvings of the other founders and even one of Godric Gryffindor holding a sword and looking very bravely at a dragon.

Finally the walls narrowed and met. As Harry and his friends moved forward, their wands illuminated a single door placed in the exact center of the wall in front of them, drawings extending in all directions as far as the eye could see. Faint voices could be heard coming from beyond it, although Harry could not make them out.

Harry, turning to his friends, put his finger to his lips before making his way to the door. Ginny followed him, withdrawing her hand to put her own ear to the door and listen along with Harry.

And then, from within the door, came the voice that Harry hated more than anything else in the world.

"Sssseverusss...so the rat has failed in his duties...we shall have to eliminate him...not that it shall be a great loss..."

"Yes, Master," came another voice, the one of the second-most hated man on Harry's list, his former Professor Snape. "But—what of Potter?"

Harry's eyes widened, and, from behind him, Ron and Hermione looked on curiously. "They're going to kill Pettigrew," he mouthed to them before replacing his ear on the door and listening carefully.

"—could not hope to emerge victorious..." Voldemort was saying, the evil in him evident even from some distance away. "He knows nothing of the final Horcrux, and without it he stands no chance against the great Lord Voldemort."


	3. The Next Great Adventure

Harry withdrew his ear from the door suddenly and stared at Ginny, who looked back at him with an equal expression of horror. There was an _eighth_ Horcrux? What could it be? There had been no mention of it—even Dumbledore hadn't known—

Silently, a weight settling into his stomach, Harry put his ear close to the doorknob and continued to listen. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lull in the conversation, for neither Voldemort nor Snape said a word for almost thirty seconds. Finally, there came a whisper from inside—Lord Voldemort whispered almost lovingly, "_Potter_..."

The door swung open, and Harry didn't even have a chance to react before he was thrust into the air, hanging by his leg. He could see Severus Snape below him, wand drawn, a sarcastic smirk working its way across his face. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, taken by surprise, floated next to him before all four friends found themselves floating into the room where Voldemort was waiting. Another wave of Snape's wand and all four friends found their wands flying out of their hands and into Snape's, who proceeded to snap them all in half. The four friends found themselves pressed against the wall suddenly, and Harry was staring directly into the face of Lord Voldemort.

"Greetings, Potter," said Voldemort with an unearthly calm, as though he had been expecting him all along—which, Harry reminded himself, he probably had been. "Don't you know your manners? Please knock first next time," he said, a sneer upon his face.

Harry gathered a wad of spit in his mouth and unleashed it upon Voldemort, who simply wiped it away with a finger and waved his wand. Harry's entire body was now paralyzed...but he was floating now...

Voldemort used his wand to direct Harry to a standing position on the floor next to him, still staring at him with a strange expression in his eyes. Harry stared directly into his face, refusing to look away. Beyond Voldemort was Severus Snape, who was quickly approaching Voldemort on his most-hated list, and beyond Snape was another door, leading to some other part of the shrine.

"And now, Harry Potter," whispered Voldemort in the same loving tone. "This time there will be no speeches, no fair fights, no duels, no _Priori Incantatem_. This time, it is only you and me, and there is nothing in the world that can save you."

"Goodbye, Harry Potter," whispered Voldemort. He pointed his wand directly at Harry, his expression slowly changing to one of ecstasy—he _had_ been waiting for this moment for many years, Harry supposed.

So, this was it, Harry supposed. After everything that he had done, after all that happened, it was all going to end here. Harry was not arrogant enough to think of himself as the world's only hope against Voldemort, but that had been what the prophecy had _said_, hadn't it? What would happen to Ron, and Hermione, and Ginny—_Ginny_—after he was gone? An anger beyond any he had ever felt before flowed through his body at the thought of everything that the monster before him had taken from him—Tom Marvolo Riddle, the bullied half-blood boy who thought that he could rule the world.

"_Avada_—"

And then the absolute last thing that Harry expected occurred. From behind Voldemort, there was a red beam of light, and Voldemort suddenly found his wand flying out of his hand.

Voldemort spun around in rage, eyes wide with fury at Severus Snape, the one who had betrayed him. But Harry knew what he had to do.

Focusing every single ounce of hatred that he felt for Lord Voldemort upon the man in front of him, Harry raised his hand and pointed it at his nemesis, screaming the words, "_Avada Kedavra!_" A writhing green mass shot out of his hand and came into contact with Voldemort, who could do nothing but scream as his body fell away before him, dissolving into nothingness. Out of the body a shimmer of air emerged, flying out one of the windows of Voldemort's shrine.

There was a sudden force from behind him, and he found himself almost falling to the floor at the force of his friends' hugs. Finally Ginny came up to him and threw her arms around him, capturing his lips in a passionate kiss. "You did it!" she shouted. "You—you killed Voldemort!"

"Yeah—" said Harry, happiness engulfing him as well. "Yeah—I-I did it—"

But then Harry remembered something, and turned around in a flash. "But—Snape?" asked Harry, and behind him his friends voiced their confusion as well, having forgotten that the Potions Master was even in the room. "But—you killed Dumbledore—" said Harry, although he wasn't so sure anymore.

"Indeed I did, Mr. Potter," said Snape, his voice resigned. "But not of my own free will."

"What?" asked Harry, incredibly confused. He had been there that night atop the Astronomy Tower—Dumbledore's body falling to the ground below replayed over and over in his mind—

"You see, Mr. Potter, during the summer of last year I was forced to make an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy," began Snape, "To protect her son during his mission—which, as you know, was to kill Albus Dumbledore—and to watch over him. But at the end of the Vow, before I could stop it, she added one more thing—I was to complete the task if Draco could not do so. After I made the Vow I went immediately to Albus, and begged his forgiveness for doing so. But instead of meeting me with anger or hatred, he met me calmly, as though ready for death."

"_Death is but the next great adventure..._" mouthed Harry, a strange understanding coming over him—Snape seemed sincere.

"Obviously, we were met with a quandary—there was no way that Draco could kill Albus, and we both knew it. That meant that either Dumbledore or myself was to die eventually—and Dumbledore wanted himself to be the one."

Harry and his friends looked at each other, and he was certain that all of them were thinking the same thing—they would have much rather had Snape die for Dumbledore instead of the other way around. Snape looked at them, and Harry thought for a second that he saw a knowing look pass over Snape's face—but that was impossible, for Snape did not talk civilly with Harry Potter.

"At first I refused," continued Snape. "There was no way that I could kill Albus—he was the one who took me in after everyone else refused me—the one who gave me a second chance when all others were clamoring for my imprisonment in Azkaban and the Dementor's Kiss."

"The entire year he asked, and the entire year I refused. But then, one night towards the end of the school year, Albus called me to his office. He told me that he suspected Draco had found a way to allow Death Eaters entry into the castle, and that he was taking you on an Order mission but would return soon. However, he had no idea of what he would find in that cave, and when he returned he returned weakened and easy bait for a Death Eater."

"And then you killed him, didn't you?" asked Ginny fiercely, her chocolate eyes shining with anger. "You killed him, even though he gave you a job and a home, even though he trusted you when no others would! You killed him—"

"Indeed I did, Miss Weasley—or is it Mrs. Potter these days?" taunted Snape."

"Get on with it, Snape," said Ginny angrily, and Snape simply nodded and continued.

"I did, and I regret it every single day. But if you would allow me to continue, perhaps I can explain to do why I did so," said Snape, with—was that _regret _in his voice?

"You see, that night before you left, Mr. Potter, I finally promised him that I would kill him if the situation unfolded. And soon it did, for he returned from the Horcrux mission greatly weakened. I was soon called to the scene by Greyback and the others, and I arrived just as Malfoy was about to kill Albus."

"And at that moment, Albus saw his chance to accomplish two very important things at once—to save Draco from becoming a killer and to cement my own position in the Dark Lord's inner circle. With his last effort, he contacted me via Legilimency to beg me to kill him—and yes, I did so, although I would now give anything to take it back."

Harry was spellbound. He stared at his friends—Ron and Hermione simply stared, mouths wide open, and Ginny opened her mouth several times before finally speaking. "So—so Dumbledore _asked_ you to kill him?"

"Correct, Miss Weasley," said Snape, and his usual sarcasm seemed to have drained out of his voice. He looked tired now, tired and weak, just as Dumbledore had been on that night.

"And now, Mr. Potter," continued Snape, "I must tell you something. There are not one, but two more Horcruxes. One lies beyond that very door, and one has been kept secret even to the Dark Lord's most faithful followers, and so I am afraid I cannot help you locate it. But when the Dark Lord perishes, due to a link between our Dark Marks, all Death Eaters shall as well. And I have a confession to make—I have not treated you at all fairly, Mr. Potter, and for that I apologize. I could only see your father in you, and it is no secret that I hated James Potter—but that was unfair to you, and for that I apologize."

Harry now found himself gaping at Snape. _Snape_, the evil Potions Master and Death Eater, hater of all Gryffindors, killer of Albus Dumbledore, was _apologizing_ to Harry Potter? Harry rubbed his eyes, but no—Snape still stood in front of him, a resigned expression on his face.

And now, Mr. Potter, you must destroy the final Horcruxes, for, as I am sure you know, Voldemort will soon return if all links to this plane are not destroyed. Good luck, Mr. Potter, and I am indeed sorry." And before Harry could say a word, Snape exited through the door from which Harry and his friends had come, closing it softly behind him.

Harry and his friends simply stared ahead for a moment before they regained their bearings and realized that all of their wands were missing. Ginny seemed to realize the same thing, but her reaction was very different. Just as she had done the moment Voldemort's body faded to dust, she stepped directly up to Harry and kissed him heavily on the mouth. She then smiled sweetly at his vaguely amused form. It wasn't until several seconds later that Harry realized he was floating.

"I love you, Ginny. _Lumos_."

Harry's right hand glowed brightly enough to allow the friends to navigate whatever lay ahead, or at least have enough light to do so.

"I love you too, Ginny."

The four friends nodded to each other, making their way towards the door. Harry opened it, revealing another series of dark passages which supposedly led to the seventh Horcrux of Lord Voldemort. The foursome stepped through the door—

And suddenly there was a flash of green light, and Ginny's body fell to the floor beneath him. Lucius Malfoy removed an Invisibility Cloak from his shoulders and leveled his wand at the four—no, three friends.


	4. The Only Way Out

Harry couldn't move. Couldn't think. Slowly, ever so slowly, he raised his hand...pointed it at Malfoy...

But suddenly the floor beneath him began to shake. Ron and Hermione jumped backwards as a hole opened up in the floor, growing larger and larger, and Lucius Malfoy had no time to move before he was engulfed by the shrine, falling to the floor below with a sickening crack.

Ron and Hermione watched helplessly as Harry knelt by Ginny's dead body. There were no tears that fell from his face; nothing whatsoever suggested that Harry was perturbed, at least nothing visible to the naked eye. Only the way his mouth hung slightly open (as if he couldn't think to close it) and the slight shaking of his shoulders gave away anything about the firestorm that now raged inside Harry's skull.

Tears filled Hermione's eyes as she stared at two of her best friends, one now dead. Ron, too, looked inconsolable—he was mouthing Ginny's name over and over, unable to move, making Hermione pull him backwards as the floor crumbled further, widening the gap between Ron and Hermione and the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Can you – jump, Harry?" asked the witch. "Harry?"

No movement. No sign. Just indifference as the floor nearer and nearer to him crumbled away, until finally the bit of shrine supporting him fell away as well and an alabaster glow seemed to hold Harry and Ginny in midair. Harry was now hovering directly next to the entrance to the final room of Voldemort's dungeon, while Ron and Hermione, forced backwards, found the darkened wing inaccessible, blocked by the rapidly-forming abyss that separated them from the Boy-Who-Lived.

Hermione, the most intelligent of the group, found herself suddenly struck by a brutal realization. A glance at Ron showed he followed shortly afterwards. Before they had entered the shrine, the Order had given them a Portkey that would allow them to exit the shrine in case of emergency. Hermione had the Portkey in her pocket.

"Harry!" she shouted, and this time her best friend of seven years turned and stared her directly in the face, a look that held such power in its depths she wondered if Harry had inherited some basilisk power from the one he killed in second year.

"Harry...oh, it's terriblie! The only way out of this shrine is the Portkey, but we can't take you with us! Do you think you can – float – over here? Can you - "

"Go," said Harry suddenly, softly, and Hermione was sure she misheard.

"W—What, Harry?" asked Hermione again.

"Go," repeated Harry. "Save yourselves. Go!" Pieces of ceiling were beginning to fall throughout the shrine, peppering images of the Founders with cracked concrete.

"Harry?" asked Hermione, shaken.

"We've defeated Voldemort!" said Harry, his resolve seeming to increase. "The people need to know. You must be the messengers!"

"But..."

"I can't leave Ginny. Please understand."

Hermione was speechless. She stared at her best friend of seven years—he was asking them to leave him for dead. No—she wasn't the smartest witch in her year if she couldn't find some way to get them out of this. She began to think.

"Harry..." Ron turned to him. "You've been the best friend that I could ever ask for. Let's go, Hermione," he said, pulling the crumpled aluminum can that served as their Portkey out of her pocket. Hermione turned to him in horror.

"Ron, what are you..."

"Harry wants us to go! If we can't all go together, that leaves us only one choice!"

Hermione continued to stare at Ron, mortified. Harry watched from his position across the crumbled shrine as his two best friends fought with themselves, and smiled as he thought of all their fights over the years.

Now Hermione turned to face him, tears flowing freely down her face. "Harry..." she said. "I promise to tell the world about this victory. Please! You must try..." she began, before the Portkey activated and his two best friends disappeared in a flash.

"Ginny..." Harry and Ginny descended to the spit of land by the last doorway, and Harry once again knelt at the foot of his dead girlfriend's body. "There will be a new era of peace," he said, struggling to keep the tears from flowing. "I wish we could have seen it. Ginny, I love you. I always have and I always will."

With those final words, Harry struggled to his feet, trying to maintain his focus on the task ahead of him, but he found himself strangely apathetic. Ginny was dead. Nothing else mattered.

"_Lumos_," he whispered, raising his hand in front of him. With that, he turned forwards and continued on the path ahead of him. Harry was unaware if he walked for mere minutes or days, just that the path finally ended at another door exactly like the first. The door was unlocked—Voldemort had apparently not expected anyone to come this far.

Harry opened the door and looked inside, holding his hand in front of him to cut through the darkness. Before him, sitting on a table, was a lone book—Rowena Ravenclaw's artifact. The seventh Horcrux.

But how to destroy it? Harry placed his hand in front of him and focused his energy on performing a great burst of magic.

_Reducto_. The spell slammed into the book, and the pages turned as if in a sudden gust of wind, but no visible damage was done whatsoever.

_Diffindo._ Again, the aged pages flapped in the wind, but otherwise the book seemed to shrug off the curse.

_Sectumsempra_. Nothing.

Harry felt his hopes slowly sinking. He was going to die in this shrine, and he couldn't even destroy a _book_ while he was there! Feeling his anger rise, Harry stepped forward and grasped the book in one of his hands, ready to throw it to the floor in a fit of anger.

And then he stopped and stared in shock.

The book's pages were turning by themselves—Ravenclaw must have left a bit of herself in the book as well. Puzzled, Harry replaced the book on the table and stared at the page it had opened to. The page seemed to have been written in Latin, but before Harry's very eyes the book's words melted away and reformed into English.

_Attero veneficium—The Magic Destruction Spell._

_This spell is very dangerous and is not in wide use due to its extremely volatile nature. The caster must focus all of his or her magic into one spell in order to destroy a person or object, hence the name _Magic Destruction Spell. _Most of the time this spell is fatal, because all but the most powerful of wizards cannot survive without their magic. The incantation is "Attero veneficium," followed by a forward flick and twirl of the wand._

And Harry almost dropped the book in realization. He knew what the final Horcrux was.

The eighth Horcrux was him.

It all made sense suddenly—the connection with Voldemort, which always seemed to go deeper than the scar. Voldemort's confidence that no one would discover the last Horcrux. The failed Killing Curse that Voldemort had attempted on Harry must have had far greater effects than anyone but Voldemort himself had known—in attempting to kill Harry, the soul had split a final time, and that piece was now embedded in Harry by the eternal connection between him and Voldemort. His scar.

And then Harry knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath, focusing every single ounce of his magic on the spell. Without giving himself time to second guess himself, he performed the wand movement demonstrated on the page with his hand, saying aloud the words "_Attero veneficium!_"

An immense ring of light emerged from Harry, surrounding him for an instant before its several pinpoints surged together into the seventh Horcrux. There was a sudden scream, although no one else was in the room, and the book's pages suddenly began to turn by themselves before fading into nothingness, crumbling away into dust.

And then suddenly Harry fell to his knees, although he was unaware that anything had happened. He felt incredibly tired...perhaps it was time to rest a little...

"Ginny, I did it. Ron, Hermione—the world will be okay now." Harry crumpled to the ground, his last bits of energy leaving him.

A ghostly image then appeared before Harry—that of Ginny Weasley. "Harry..." she said softly, her voice ethereal.

Harry blinked his eyes several times—this must be a hallucination brought on by his overexertion. "Ginny?" he gasped anyway. "Is that you?"

"You did it, Harry," she said, her chocolate-brown eyes piercing his gaze, removing all doubts about the reality of the scene that he was seeing now. "Yeah, I did, didn't I, Gin?"

"Let's go, Harry. Let's go to your parents...and Sirius, and Remus, and Bill...and Dumbledore..."

Harry smiled very weakly. "Yes, let's do that," he said. His exhaustion was slowly fading away, and a happiness beyond any he had ever felt was now taking its place. He felt himself rising into the air, the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders. Above him, Ginny watched peacefully, her hair enfolding her radiantly and giving her the appearance of an angel. He wanted nothing more than to go up there with her, to be with her forever, and to see his parents, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore...

And as Harry Potter floated into the sky to join the woman that he loved in heaven, he paused for a moment to gaze at the earth and hope that the world would enjoy the lasting peace that his sacrifice had brought.


End file.
